Gold’s Glitter Guarded

From The New Yorker‘s website, a slide show on the recent article about last year’s discovery of gold buried in a temple in south Kerala, and a remarkable set of observations from the photographer assigned to that story:

In India, deities can own property, and this temple, dedicated to Vishnu, has been accumulating gold for centuries. “I was asked to photograph it from the outside; it is strictly forbidden to take photos inside,” Goia said. “Jake and I found ourselves jumping from office to office calling whatever number possible to try to get permission to access the security area.”